KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 20): The FBM KLCI closed 9.68 points or 0.6% higher, led by CIMB Group Holdings Bhd share gains and amid fund managers' year-end window dressing.

At 5pm, the KLCI closed at 1,746.63 points. CIMB added 23 sen or 3.68% to RM6.48 with some 16 million shares traded. CIMB was the largest gainer in percentage terms among the 30 KLCI-linked stocks.

"Hopefully the window dressing would sustain (the KLCI) until the end of the year,” Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd head of retail research Loui Low told theedgemarkets.com.

Across Bursa Malaysia, the exchange saw 444 gainers versus 365 decliners. Trading volume was 2.53 billion shares worth RM2.26 billion.

Top gainer was Hartalega Holdings Bhd while the biggest decliner was British American Tobacco (M) Bhd.

Malaysian shares rose as global investors anticipated the US' tax reform to be approved on Wednesday. Reuters reported that world stock markets wavered just below recent record highs while US Treasury yields held near multi-month peaks on Wednesday as the final procedural moves of long-awaited US tax reform played out in Washington.

The Republican-led US Senate approved the sweeping US$1.5-trillion tax Bill in the early hours of Wednesday. A re-vote by the House of Representatives was scheduled for later in the day, with approval expected, and the Bill will then go to President Donald Trump for him to sign into law.